


The Black Flamed Candle

by jessica988



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Kristanna - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Halloween, Halloween Zine, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27304888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessica988/pseuds/jessica988
Summary: A life taken too soon.A plan set in place to save her soul.Now she waits, and listens, for the right time.Her lover, once before, to return back to her side,For only he can light the candle, and bring her back to life.(My contribution to the Halloween Zine 2020)
Relationships: Anna & Kristoff (Disney), Anna/Kristoff (Disney)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	The Black Flamed Candle

He pauses his work as he hears his door slam open, looking up to find a familiar face. 

Instead of a sweet smile, however, it is stricken with fear. 

“What’s happened?” He asks, dropping his tools to come to her. 

“There’s--there’s not much time I--” the woman sobs.

“What is it, what’s wrong my love?”

Sad blue eyes look up to him, voice shaky as she speaks, “I’ve been accused.”

**~.~**

He’s eight when he first sets eyes on the Sander’s house.

They’re on a field trip to celebrate Halloween. Kristoff isn’t sure how he comes across the old cabin, but he does so with ease.

That’s where his teacher finds him, the young boy staring intently at the old house.

“Oh Kristoff, you found the Sander’s house. Do you know the story?” The boy shakes his head, turning to look up at her. “Well, it’s said that two young witches lived there.”

“Witches?” He says, the word new to him.

“Yes, witches. They could do magic!” The teacher says with emphasis, “but these witches were bad witches, they did awful magic to people.”

Kristoff isn’t sure why, but without hesitation he says, “No they didn’t.”

His teacher goes silent, simply looking down at him confused. “What?”

“They didn’t do bad things,” he says, more sure now as he looks back to the house, “They didn’t.”

“How do you know that?”

Kristoff shrugs, “I just know.”

**~.~**

“By whom?”

“I do not know. I only know because of Elizabeth, she overheard one of the members whispering.”

“They will not hurt you,” he says, grabbing hold of her hands, “I will not let them lay a hand.”

She smiles at this, another sob escaping her, “I can not ask you to defend me.”

“I do so willingly,” he says, kissing her knuckles, “I will protect you with my life.”

**~.~**

It’s his first Halloween when he’s able to go off on his own.

He’s only 13, as his mother likes to remind him constantly, but he feels more like an adult than ever before. He’s outside, no parents in sight, free to do whatever he wants. It’s every kid’s dream.

They’re playing hide and seek, trick or treating long forgotten, and as Sven begins to count Kristoff takes off to the woods. 

All the good hiding spots have already been found in previous games, so the pressure is on. He’s still running, not sure where he is nor really caring because he has to win. 

It’s only when he breaks through the trees, feet hitting a concrete path that he stops. 

He looks both ways, trying to catch his bearings and he realizes he’s made it to the park. It’s not far from his house, he knows this, but he’s surprised either way to find he’s made it here of all places. 

Then he feels it, a chill running up his spine that causes the hairs on the back of his neck to rise. 

Something was here, what exactly he isn’t sure. 

It’s not Sven, no way he had caught up to him just yet. 

Still, something was here and that something was pulling him to follow, beckoning him to come. 

He looks behind him, not hearing or seeing a sign of Sven or the other boys from the block, and turns back down the path. 

So he follows. 

It doesn’t take long for him to find his destination, Kristoff coming to a halt when he sees it.

The Sander’s house. 

It’s creepier at night, a contrast to the broken down cabin he’s seen within the day. Now it stands in the moonlight, early dark and broken before him.

As it does every time, he feels familiarity upon seeing it. As though he knows what lies inside, knows the makeup of the old house. Knows that the kitchen, as small as it is, lies to the right side of the cabin, giving way to two small sitting chairs near the fireplace. Knows that it has two bedrooms, one of which he knows has a bundle of dried wildflowers hanging above the small bed. 

More importantly, he knows that it held happiness here. 

It’s then, with that thought, he hears it.

A soft laugh, carried in the breeze and it makes Kristoff jump. 

He doesn’t wait, doesn’t hesitate to bolt back into the woods, leaving the cabin behind him.

**~.~**

“I can not bare the thought of losing you, of you dying because of me.”

“And I can not sit back and watch you die.”

A knock interrupts them, the man instinctively moving in front of her and grabbing hold of the fire poker. Ready for whomever may come for her, for his love, his heart. 

But it is not the village nor their leader, it is her sister. 

“Elizabeth? Why are you--”

“There is not much time, have you told him?” The younger sister nods. “Then we must make haste.”

**~.~**

Kristoff hears the family clock chime as it calls the hour.

10:00. 

The house is still, silent as the clock’s song finishes. For a minute, Kristoff listens to any movement, any sign of someone awake. 

He hears nothing. 

With that, he eases out of his bed, still dressed from earlier today.

He’s thankful his mother did not question his desire to stay in his room this evening, assuming the 16 year old was merely bored and watching horror movies within his room. 

He’d watched one to pass the time, some new one Sven had recommended, turning the tv off to give the illusion he’d gone to sleep. It had worked.

The window slides up easily, hardly making a sound as he pushes it up. Steadily, carefully, he climbs out the window. He is sure to take light steps as he turns, pushing the window down just enough where he can get back in later tonight but not open enough to draw suspicion. 

Just as he turns to leave, he feels as though he is forgetting something. Turning back, he looks into the window and spies what it is he is missing. A lighter, one his friend had left behind that Kristoff held onto for whatever reason. He pauses before reaching for it, slightly confused at why he suddenly needed the lighter tonight. 

He takes it though, sliding the window back up enough for his hand to sneak in and grab it, putting it in his jacket pocket.

The night is cool, autumn in full effect now on this Halloween night. Kristoff can hear a few voices down the street, no doubt a few teens still out and about enjoying the festive evening. 

He ignores them though, going the path he has come to know far too well. 

One he has come to follow every Halloween. 

The familiar pull guides him, leading him to the destination in little time. He only stops when he is right in front of it. 

Kristoff looks it over, trying to work over what exactly could be happening with him and this cabin. What has somehow created a connection with him and this barely standing structure.

He knows the stories, the history by heart. After the encounter 3 years prior, he took it upon himself to look up everything and anything he could on the house and the residents that lived inside. There was not much, only small bits and pieces here and there but it was enough. 

Anna and Elizabeth Sanders. 

Sisters who had come for the new world nearly 300 years ago, leaving behind their home in Norway. There was little known about their parents. Only mentions of them being well liked and respected in their home village. They had journeyed before the girls, traveling to the new world only a week prior. Their ship never reached its destination, and historians assume it was lost at sea. 

The sisters found their way to the new world as orphans, settling in the cabin that sits before Kristoff now. They had been well liked, from what he could find, by majority of the village. 

After that, it was all rumors and speculations, tales that had been told throughout the town.

No actual facts of what transpired that led to the youngest, Anna, to lose her life so young. Only that she had been accused of witchcraft, as so many women during that time had been. 

No trial was given, only giving what the people then deemed as justice. 

One blogger said that she was responsible for the disappearance of children, and thought that she was using their lives to keep herself young. 

Another speculated she’d been careless, casting a spell in front of watchful eyes that led to her doom.

A reddit thread blamed it on a jealous man, scorned by her denial for her hand and accused her out of pure anger and rage. 

An author had written it off as just another sad moment in history for women during that time, and that was it. 

Though even having such little information, Kristoff was fully engaged into the story of this little house. 

He’d never come close to the house, always staying on the paved path before it but tonight felt different.

He feels bolder, confident; not as scared like he was years before. 

So he moves forward, taking slow careful steps as he comes to the front of the house. The porch, though broken and rotten, still stands strong as Kristoff steps upon it. It creaks with his weight, but it does not bend. 

Kristoff stares at the door, the same feel of familiarity filling him. He rolls the lighter in his hand over and over, as though he is working up the nerve. Out of what feels like instinct, he brings his free hand up and knocks softly. The sound seems to echo through the night, into the forest around him.

Then it is still.

Eerily so. 

Then, as the breeze rustles through the trees behind him and around him, he hears it. 

It’s soft, barely there but he hears it well enough to jump back. 

_Kristoff._

His name, clear as day, had been whispered into his ear.

**~.~**

“Why don’t we run? I can prepare a horse and--”

“We can not,” The elder sister says, “there is no time. They were gathering as I came for you.”

“But--”

“I’m sorry.” she says, grabbing hold of her younger sibling, “I’m sorry I’ve failed you but I will not fail you again. I swear it.”

“You have not failed me.” She says, “It was not your doing that led to this, you did not cause this.”

“No,” the man says, his voice booming as the sisters turn to him. “I will have none of this.” He says, turning to find a true weapon, “I will not hear goodbyes, I will not accept this fate.”

The young woman turns to her lover, placing a hand to his chest to still him. He does so, tears stinging his eyes as they do her own, and he can not think of a world where she is not in it. Of a time where he exists and she does not. He does not want it, can not fathom such a life.

**~.~**

The dreams follow after that night. As though his knocking had been answered after all, opening a door elsewhere that he could not see.

It’s always the same. 

He comes to the cabin, knocking the same as he did once before but this time the door opens revealing a home no more in shambles but tidy and clean. 

There, just inside, stands a young woman.

From the moment Kristoff first saw her in the dream, he knew instantly that he knew her. How or where or why, he was not sure, but he knew her immediately. 

From her long strawberry blonde hair, to her sea colored eyes, the freckles that scattered across her face, the large bright smile that she always has when he enters opens the door, the way her eyes seem to sparkle, to ignite as he comes in; as though he brings hope, brings her so much happiness that no one else can. 

Every time, without fail, she stands behind the door and every time she holds a large black candle in her hands, its flame oddly glowing the same eerie black as the candle.

He comes to her, standing before her and watches as her eyes follow him, still smiling a radiant smile. She looks to him, then to the candle and just when he moves to touch her, to place a hand to her waist or cup her cheek, he wakes up. 

When he does, he is always filled with an intense feeling of dread and sorrow.

**~.~**

“I can offer something.”

The two lovers turn to the eldest, watching as she pulls a book from beneath her cloak and begins to turn the pages. 

“What have you found?”

After a moment, the pages stop turning and the blonde haired woman speaks, “It’s a spell, one that I can create to give you the life you deserve.” She is crying now, reading through her tears, “It won’t be enough, not nearly enough, but I can try…”

The young woman comes to her sister, placing a hand on her shoulder to bring her eyes up to hers, “You’ve done more than you know dear sister.”

The older sister sobs, both sobbing as they hug one another. The man watches them, his heart slowly shattering at the notion this may be the end. 

“Ok,” the oldest speaks, pulling back as she looks back to the book, “There is not much time so I will have to explain quickly…”

**~.~**

While everyone else moves away, including Sven, Kristoff can not bring himself to do it.

College in and of itself was difficult enough. The familiar pull to come back always there, nearly begging and pleading him to do so. 

He was never too far, only an hour or so away, but it was enough to make his chest ache. For the first time, his dreams change. 

No longer is the woman smiling as he enters, a sadness now in her eyes every time he appears. The candle she holds is no longer lit, adding to the sorrow that now sits within this dream. She speaks now, no longer quiet, and she always repeats the same thing:

“Kristoff.” She says, in her hauntingly familiar voice, “Kristoff, come back. Come home.” 

So he does. 

He graduates with his degree and finds a good enough job to pay the bills, a historian of all things, settling into a new routine. The ache is now gone, only coming back as it always does as the leaves begin to change to signal the beginning of fall. 

It’s the morning of Halloween when he decides he’s going to do it. He’s waited long enough, pushed the idea away far too long now. Something, whether the woman or the cabin itself, wants him to enter. 

Needs him to enter. 

So tonight he will.

He’s planned it, able to snag the spare key to the house from security a few days before. He hadn’t even questioned the fact, assuming it was for historian things. 

Kristoff spends the day preparing, for what exactly he doesn’t know. He’s nervous, ridiculously so, and he feels incredibly silly picking out an outfit to wear. 

Why was he trying to look his best? He was going to an abandoned house, no one was there. Yet, something within him wanted him to do so. So here he was, making sure to be clean shaven, dressed as nice as he can without going overboard. 

Night comes slowly, agonizingly so, and Kristoff sits impatiently for the sun to fully set. As soon as it does, he is up and gone, opting for a car this time instead of walking. 

The whole drive he ponders, wonders, questions what could happen this night.

**~.~**

“And you’re sure it will work?”

“Yes, it shall work.” 

She turns, facing him, the question in her eyes that she doesn’t need to ask. He sighs, nodding as his tears begin to fall. 

She smiles weakly, understanding what is to come and they come together as they both desperately try to hold on to as much as they can for this last moment.

“I’ll come for you.” He whispers in her hair, “I promise you, with my life, I will come for you and we will live together. I promise you this Anna.”

The girl shakes as she cries in his chest, only nodding at his words.

“I love you.” He says, over and over, “I love you.”

**~.~**

Kristoff nearly runs to the house, not wasting any time to get to his destination. He picks up his pace when he sees the house come into view.

He’s panting as he steps onto the porch, adjusting his jacket and checking his pocket for the old lighter and the key. He takes a deep breath, preparing for whatever it is on the other side of the door, for whatever it is that has pulled him here every year. 

To find what it is the woman in his dreams wants him to discover. 

Kristoff pulls out the key, unlocks the lock from the door and lets it fall to the ground with an echoing bang. He looks back up, hand on the handle, and before he turns he knocks as he’s done so many times in his dream. 

It’s pitch black as he enters, his eyes adjusting to the darkness within. It’s exactly as he’s seen it so many times, only dark and decrepit. The chairs have since fallen apart, barely standing and the kitchen is covered with dust and cobwebs. 

More importantly, there is no woman within the house. No bright, welcoming smile to greet him as Kristoff steps into the home. 

As he enters, as he steps across the threshold, there is an overwhelming feeling of calm that comes over him. A peace that causes him to pause in his entrance. It’s welcoming, comforting, something he senses he hasn’t felt in a long time. 

While he stands, looking at his broken surroundings, he spots it on the nearby table. 

The familiar and oh so recognizable black candle. It stands tall, untouched by time as it’s surroundings have been. It seems new, as though someone came in and left it there recently. Kristoff looks it over, turning the lighter over and over in his jacket pocket before pulling it out. 

He moves to the table, the woods creaking beneath his feet, and he doesn’t know why but he must light the candle.

Has to light the candle. 

There is a quiet click as the lighter creates a flame, Kristoff eyeing it then the candle before moving it slowly to the wick. 

As soon as the candle alights, as the flame takes hold of the wick creating the familiar black flame Kristoff has seen in his dreams, he is consumed by a wave of memories. 

Of a time so long ago, of a journey he once took abroad a small vessel to the new world. The days he spent building, working hard to create a home here, a life. Then they’d arrive, the two Sander’s sisters. Elizabeth was so calm and poise, a striking contrast to the lively and bright Anna who had taken his breath away the moment he’d laid eyes on her. 

Of their awkward first meeting, at the sound of her laugh as he’d blushed furiously down at her. How they’d been inseparable ever since that day, sneaking off when they could to spend time with the other. Of late night walks under the brightly lit sky, of strolling through the town hand in hand, taking in what was all around them.

The night they’d spent alone in his cabin, Anna having snuck out to meet him. It was the night her secret was shared, was told to him in confidence and with eyes full of tears she had asked him if he still loved her. He’d simply said how could he not? How they’d shared more than secrets that night, giving each other wholly and fully to each other.

They’d been set to marry in the Summer, her favorite season, with a bundle of sunflowers which he'd planted for her. Just for her. 

How she never got to see them, never had the chance.

The day that it came crashing down around them, her secret somehow exposed for all to know. She’d come to him, completely terrified with news of what had transpired, how a new villager had decided to go an unspeakable way of revenge after she’d turned down his advances. 

The moment Elizabeth had appeared, plan in mind, to set things right and give them both a future they deserved. To give back what was to be taken away from them.

It would take time, she’d warned, lots of time but she swore, on her life, that they would get the ending they deserved. The happiness they both were supposed to have. All it would take was the lighting of a candle, the same candle that sat before him on the table. 

Kristoff blinks, dropping the lighter to the table as he takes it all in. The old memories, the realization of what exactly this means. 

He hears footsteps then, coming up the path to the door and Kristoff turns as he hears the floors creak under their weight. He holds his breath, waiting in excitement and awe as she listens to her move through the door.

“Kristoff?” He gasps at her voice, at the wonderful sound of her saying his name.

A few more steps and she appears.There, standing before him now, smiling and beaming at him with the same beautiful smile he’s always loved, was Anna. 

He smiles, tears falling as he simply stares. He doesn’t move, let alone speak as he takes in the sight of her, of the woman he had so wholeheartedly and completely loved.

Whom he still loved, would forever love. 

Anna moves closer, the tears in her eyes now visible and he doesn’t reach out till he hears say his name, this time in absolute utter relief.

“Kristoff.”

He breaks, moving and wrapping her in his arms then, holding her close to his chest as he breathes in the scent of her, takes in the feel of her small arms wrapping around him. 

“Anna.” he whispers in her hair, “Anna, my Anna...I’ve missed you.”

“And I’ve missed you.” She says, pulling back to face him. He cups her cheek, he himself now sobbing at the feel of her leaning into his hand, “What took you so long?”

Kristoff laughs, full and deep before capturing her lips with his own.


End file.
